Israel responds to Palestine's UN recognition with new settlements

ISRAEL has revealed plans to build 3000 settler homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank in response to the Palestinians' historic success in being recognised as a non-member state at the United Nations.
During the landmark Thursday vote in New York, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a resolution recognising Palestine within the 1967 borders as a non-member observer state.
It was a major diplomatic coup for the Palestinians but a stinging slap in the face for Israel, which had lobbied hard to prevent it, arguing that it would cripple peace hopes.
Reports of the decision to build the 3000 housing units in response to the UN vote emerged on Friday afternoon, with an official source confirming it to AFP.
“It's true,'' he said, without specifying exactly where.
Media reports said some of the construction would be in a highly contentious area of the West Bank known as E1, a corridor that runs between the easternmost edge of annexed Jerusalem and the Maaleh Adumim settlement.

Palestinians bitterly oppose the E1 project, as it effectively cuts the occupied West Bank in two north to south and makes the creation of a viable Palestinian state highly problematic. The Palestinians want annexed east Jerusalem as capital of their promised, future state and vigorously oppose expansion plans for Maaleh Adumim, which lies five kilometres from the city's eastern edge.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the UN vote as “a meaningless decision that will not change anything on the ground,'' and said peace could only be found in “direct negotiations... and not in one-sided UN decisions”. But he also warned that by going to the UN, the Palestinians had “violated'' previous agreements with Israel, such as the 1993 Oslo Accords, and that his country would “act accordingly.''
A report on the Ynet news website said the decision to connect Maaleh Adumim with Jerusalem had been taken by Netanyahu's inner circle, the Forum of Nine, on Thursday.
Earlier on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom had mooted the idea of building in E1 as a response to the UN move, which he said was a violation of agreements the Palestinians had signed with Israel, such as the Oslo Accords.
“The violation of these agreements... means Israel can also take unilateral initiatives such as applying Israeli sovereignty in the territories or connecting Maaleh Adumim and Jerusalem,'' he told public radio.
Linking the settlement and the city is an idea long espoused by hardliners within Netanyahu's ruling rightwing Likud party but strongly opposed by Washington.
Israel has long feared that if the Palestinians won the rank of a UN non-member state, they could pursue the Jewish state for war crimes at the International Criminal Court in The Hague -- particularly over its settlement building.
Two days before the UN vote, Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour warned that if Israel continued “to illegally build settlements, which is a war crime from the point of view of the ICC and the Rome statute, then we will consult with all of our friends, including the Europeans, to (ask) them what should we do next to bring Israel into compliance'' with UN resolutions.
With their newly acquired status, the Palestinians now have access to a range of UN agencies as well as to the ICC, but officials said they had no plans to immediately petition the tribunal.
“If Israel refrains from settlement activities and so on... there's no immediate pressing reason to do that. If Israel persists in its violations, then certainly it will have to face accountability,'' Ashrawi said on Wednesday.
Friday's decision to build more settler homes was denounced by Peace Now, Israel's settlement watchdog.
“Instead of punishing the Palestinians, this government is punishing Israel by making peace harder to achieve and showing that Israel does not want peace,'' said Hagit Ofran. “That is very dangerous.''
Arab east Jerusalem was captured by Israel with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem as its “eternal, indivisible'' capital, and does not view construction in the eastern sector to be settlement activity.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticised Israel's decision in a speech attended by top Israeli officials.
“In light of today's announcement, let me reiterate that this administration - like previous administrations - has been very clear with Israel that these activities set back the cause of a negotiated peace,'' Clinton said on Friday.
Clinton was speaking at a forum in Washington hosted by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defence Minister Ehud Barak were in the audience when she made her remarks.
In a wide-ranging speech also tackling the conflict in Syria and Iran's suspect nuclear program, Clinton highlighted the troubled Middle East peace process, calling on Israelis and Palestinians to get back to negotiations.
“The most lasting solution to the stalemate in Gaza would be a comprehensive peace between Israel and all Palestinians, led by their legitimate representative, the Palestinian Authority,'' Clinton said.
“This week's vote should give all of us pause. All sides need to consider carefully the path ahead,'' Clinton said. “We all need to work together to find a path forward in negotiations that can deliver on the goal of a two-state solution. That remains our goal.
“If and when the parties are ready to enter into direct negotiations to solve the conflict, President (Barack) Obama will be a full partner to them.''

zionist occupy someone's land....